Friday Morning Hot Links

*The Astros didn't play yesterday and yet I still didn't read the 23 remaining books I was going to read this offseason.

*I'll be on 103.7 The Game in Lafayette, Louisiana (a place to which I would move immediately) this morning around 10:15am Central.

*Heck yes. 70-year old Willie Berry got his ring yesterday. Reid Ryan:
I know how many years he's worked for the Astros, how many mounds that he has manicured and pounded and cleaned and prepped, and just seeing him saunter up onto the stage and the smile on my face - it was ear to ear. He earned that ring as much as anybody in that organization for putting his life into the Houston Astros.

We are all Willie Berry.

*ClintShane wrote the Ballad of #AstrosMovies.

*There's a World Series Ring raffle which lasts a reprehensibly-long time in which the winner will be drawn on July 15. Proceeds will benefit the Astros Foundation. So go buy a raffle ticket and then forget about it until you get the email notification that you've given it to me. Thank you. You're sweet.

*Altuve and Correa are, like, friends but they're, like, family, man.

*From Jake Kaplan in (gasp) The Athletic (which you need to subscribe to read): Carlos Correa thinks he's figured out the problem with his slow starts. Click the link to discover that the Astros won't be handing out championship belts this year.

*Get 40% off your subscription to The Athletic.

*Dale Robertson wonders if Justin Verlander can win 30 games, I think.

*Meanwhile, Jim Bowden thinks Charlie Morton has more wins than Justin Verlander at the end of the year. (ALERT: This is from The Athletic).

*Chandler Rome writes about how many different high-leverage bullpen options A.J. Hinch has at his disposal.

*Joe Smith was on the 2016 Cubs roster and threw 14.1IP in 16 games, but didn't feel like he earned that ring. He wants that to change this year. Smith, on why he signed with Houston:
This was the best chance to win a World Series. Winning a ring is something special that not a lot of people get to do. You don't know when a team's gonna come around that's going to be good and if you're going to be fortunate to be on it. You could be stuck in a rebuilding process. There's things that go on in your career that you don't really have control of. It's not often you get to walk into a clubhouse with this great of a team.

*J.D. Davis is getting used to first base.

*CultureMap has Lance McCullers' Top 10 Steps to a World Series championship.

*Roy Hofheinz's personalized railroad car was found in a Houston warehouse. Snowpiercer 2, anyone?

*Apparently winning six of seven from two trash-ass organizations means you're the odds-on favorite to win the World Series.

*The Fresh-Off-Suspension David Paulino is beginning his 2018 season on the DL. Seeing as how Paulino threw 10.1IP, 2H/2R (0ER), 10K:4BB in Spring Training, I'm interested in seeing how this goes.

*Fresno is gonna blow it out for the home opener.

*Please read What The Heck, Bobby for their 2018 minor-league season Opening Day preview.

*Yuli Gurriel is rehabbing in Corpus. James Hoyt is in Fresno.

*Morgan Ensberg is the perfect manager for the Buies Creek Astros, says the Fayetteville Observer. Ensberg:
I knew I was a teacher from Day One. I just happened to know baseball. I enjoy teaching and helping somebody else. My career is over. I'm not going back to the big leagues to play. But I get a chance to help these kids realize a childhood dream. And that's great.

*Former Astros Great Josh Zeid retired from baseball.

*Former Ramgers Great Jonathan Lucroy threw out five Ramgers stealing bases in three days.

Pre-Stros Report

Fresno 2
Reno 10

Mike Hauschild allowed 7H/7ER, 1K:3BB in 2.1IP to kick off his 2018 season. Drew Ferguson was 3x4 with a double and a walk; Kyle Tucker made his Triple-A debut and went 2x4 with a walk. The Grizzlies went 1x8 w/RISP and left ten men on base.

Corpus 4
NW Arkansas 5

Corpus had a 4-2 lead heading into the bottom of the 8th before NW Arkansas scored two in the 8th and got a bases-loaded bloop in the 9th for the walk-off win. Yuli Gurriel was 2x4 with a double and 2RBI. Nick Tanielu was 2x5 with a double and an RBI. Myles Straw was 1x2 with 2BB. Framber Valdez threw 5IP, 3H/2ER, 4K:2BB and retired 13 of the last 15 batters he faced. Josh James blew the save with 3IP, 4H/2ER, 7K:0BB and Riley Ferrell took the loss with 0.2IP, 1H/1ER, 2K:3BB.

Buies Creek 3
Salem 4

Salem scored three runs in the bottom of the 1st and the Astros couldn't chip away enough. Troy Sieber was 2x4 with two doubles; Ronnie Dawson was 0x2 with 2BB. Jorge Alcala threw 3IP, 5H/4ER, 5K:2BB; Kit Scheetz and Abdiel Santana combined for 5IP, 4H/0ER, 5K:1BB.

Cedar Rapids 2
Quad Cities 0

Mike Papierski was 1x3 with a double and a walk and was one of three River Bandits to not strike out; Jonathan Arauz had two hits. Patrick Sandoval threw 4IP, 5H/2ER, 4K:2BB. Cesar Rosado threw 3.2IP, 1H/0ER, 2K:5BB. Of note: Cedar Rapids pitcher Jovani Moran struck out the side in the 5th, but had to work around three walks and three wild pitches, throwing 13 of his 31 pitches for strikes.

Thursday Morning Hot Links

*The Astros have basically won six games six different ways so far this season. I think we can all agree that we as fans can get used to winning six games per week. Yesterday the Astros beat the Orioles for the sweep, 3-2. The Astros have won 14 of their last 16 games against Baltimore, including nine straight in Houston.

*Reddick singled three times. Bregman and Stassi were each 1x3 with a walk. The Astros were 1x8 w/RISP as everyone seemingly dealt with a hangover from the ring ceremony.

*Dallas Keuchel needed 104 pitches to get 15 outs, allowing 5H/2R (1ER), 3K:4BB. It was the second time since the beginning of the 2015 season that he walked more batters than he struck out. Keuchel:
I thought my command on the glove side with my cutter was a whole lot better than it was in Arlington, so that's a plus. I just didn't lock it in on the arm side of the plate.

Hinch:
It's nice to get a win in an otherwise pretty sluggish day for us. I didn't think we were at our best on a lot of levels, but we kind of grind through the game, and Dallas gets through a tough outing of his own and we kind of piece it together and come up with a big hit.

Of course there was manufactured drama in letting Brad Peacock (3IP, 2H/0ER, 5K:0BB, 39 pitches) close out the final three innings of the game, and not using Ken Giles for the 9th inning. Hinch:
The move today is no indictment on Ken Giles. It's not a message being sent to him...today the matchup that we liked with the way Peacock was spinning the ball and the team we were facing and how he was pitching, all led me to want to leave Brad Peacock in.

*Today's Off-Day means it's the first Playoff Odds Check-In (POC-I) of the season!
-FanGraphs: 95.3% to win the division, 98.9% to make the playoffs.
-BP: 87.6% to win the division, 95.7% to make the playoffs.
-FiveThirtyEight: 74% to win the division, 88% to make the playoffs.

*Jexas has your Orioles sweep recap.

*Hunter Atkins says it's easy for Hinch to manage different lineups.

*From The Athletic:
-Jake Kaplan writes about how the rings tell the story of the 2017 season.
-Levi Weaver talked to Rob Manfred about minor-league pay and his answers made no sense whatsoever.
-Rob Manfred is satisfied with how the Astros handled Gurriel's five-game suspension. Manfred:
He served his five-game suspension. He lost his five days of pay. He's now on a 15-day disabled list stint. I think what they did was completely consistent not only with the rules but with the intent of the rules.

Someone want to tell Manfred that it's a 10-Day disabled list now? While we're talking about The Athletic, I would like to mention why their stories are included in the Hot Links:

1. The Athletic has really good journalism that looks at the game from a slightly different angle.
2. That's pretty much it.

Yes, you have to subscribe to The Athletic in order to read the articles. I typically don't include articles you would need to pay to read in the Hot Links each morning but The Athletic is worth the subscription price. If you don't want to pay to read the articles, you don't have to click the link. The Athletic has also given me, personally, an outlet for a wider audience and I feel that highlighting what they're publishing is okay. If you are offended, I deeply apologize but will make no effort to rectify the wrongs inflicted on you.

*I did the Where Did These Guys Come From for:
-Fresno
-Corpus
-Buies Creek
-Quad Cities

*Jim Callis has a list of where the Astros' Top 30 prospects will start the 2018 season.

*FanGraphs: The four-man outfield and position-less baseball.

Wednesday Morning Hot Links

These will be short, as I'm working on about four hours of sleep. Didn't get to watch a minute of the Astros game and I am very sad, for many reasons. 

The Astros and, mainly, Josh Reddick rallied from two different one-run deficits to steamroll the Orioles 10-6. Carlos Correa got to test out his jacked up toe when he hit a two-run inside-the-park home run. Josh Reddick saved a 2-run Orioles home run, hit a two-run home run in the 6th that put the Astros up 5-4, and then hit a grand slam in the 7th that sealed the game.

*5-1 is the Astros' best start since 1997 and we all know how that ended...20 years later they won the World Series.

*It was Reddick's 110th and 111th home runs of his career. He had not had a 2+ HR game since August 3, 2014 (both off of James Shields). The 7th inning jack was the 6th Grand Slam of his career., and his second for the Astros. His 6RBI tied a career-high.

*Correa's inside-the-park homer was timed at 16.39 seconds, the fastest Astros home run trot recorded by StatCast. Hinch:
We would have taken the inside-the-park home run and could have sent him in right there. He's pretty good. Even in a little bit of pain, he's able to contribute like that. 

Correa probably won't be in the lineup today.

Justin Verlander threw 5.2IP, 6H/4R (3ER), 9K:1BB. No Astros reliever (Devenski, Rondon, Harris, Smith) threw a clean appearance, allowing 6H/2R (1ER), 4K:1BB in 3.1IP.

*It was Joe Smith's 700th career MLB appearance.

*Check out Alex Bregman's ridiculous throw from basically Missouri City.

*Those rings.

❄️🔥❄️🔥❄️🔥❄️🔥❄️🔥❄️🔥 pic.twitter.com/vY8zSgZgIT

— Lance McCullers Jr. (@LMcCullers43) April 4, 2018

Want one of your own? It'll only cost you $11,200.

*Giancarlo Stanton made his home debut in Yankee Stadium and promptly went 0x5 with 5Ks, and the ever-patient "27 RANGZ!!!!!!1!" contingent of Yankees fans booed him.

*Dallas Keuchel will face Dylan Bundy in the 1st afternoon home game of the season at 1:10pm. They are off tomorrow.